To think this was the same player who was rendered obsolete by former manager Thomas Doll.

In the space of several years, Şahin went from doubting his ability as a BVB player to entertaining the realistic idea of playing for a more prestigious club like Real Madrid.

There's a line Nuri gives to The Sun's Antony Kastrinakis which resonates with the Turk's decision to sign with Real Madrid: "Agents rang up every day and promised to sell me to God and every club in the world."

To put the quote in context, this was prior to him becoming an established star.

As he watched his teammates secure the Bundesliga title, he began to buy the bill of goods sold by people whose interests were in themselves, not Nuri's long-term future.

Şahin had leeway to fail with Dortmund should his knees give way, which they did twice at Real Madrid, but José Mourinho didn't have the same affection for the midfielder as Klopp and Bert van Marwijk did.

This isn't retrospective analysis because if you polled 100 Bundesliga experts at the time of the transfer, 90-95 percent of them would have told you this was an excellent move for Los Blancos but a terrible choice for Nuri.

Şahin would have been 14 years old when an unhappy Flávio Conceição—the €26 million man from Real Madrid—arrived at the Westfalenstadion on a loan stint.

A decade later, Şahin finds himself in a similar situation to Conceição.